Be Part of Building a New Republic

VAT on e-books should be slashed – Crowe

Sinn Féin Education Spokesperson Seán Crowe TD has called on the
Government to reduce the 23% VAT rate on electronic school books so that the
saving can be passed on directly to students and their parents.

The Dublin South West TD was supporting calls from the Irish Education
Publishers’ Association (IEPA) who claim that the 23% rate means parents and
schoolchildren are not getting the full benefit from e-books.

Deputy Crowe said:

“The cost of school books rises as children pass through the education
system, with parents being charged on average between €50 and €100 for books
for a junior infants pupil and over €250 for a first year pupil. Another factor
is the high cost and constant changing of books used in the school curriculum system.
Unless more and more schools implement a book rental scheme many parents will
continue to struggle to meet payments for their children's education.

"We also know that the volume and weight of schoolbooks has
impacted negatively on the health of children and has become an increased
problem in recent years for students of all sizes and ages. The problems of
their weight has been raised by Irish educators, parents groups and teachers
representatives in various fora and education conferences down through the
years.

"The Minister Ruairí Quinn and the Department of Education needs to
show initiative and greater imagination when addressing the issue of books and
e-books and their long term impact on Irish students.

“Over one third of Irish schools use an electronic version of a book
which imposes an initially high cost on parents when paying for a table
computer to read them on. This is supposed to be off-set through the use of
e-books which are meant to be cheaper in the long-term with costs down to
between 20% – 35%. However, if claims by the Irish Educational Publishers
Association (IEPA) are correct, then the 23% VAT rate being charged on
electronic books means any potential savings are being cancelled out.

“It is simply not good enough for Finance Minister Michael Noonan to
rule out reducing the VAT on e-books by blaming EU laws which require all
digitised publications to be treated as a supply of service. Electronic school
books are essential to a child’s education and they should be exempt from the
excessive VAT rate of 23%.

"I fully support the IEPA in its call for a reduction in the VAT
rate, Finance Minister Michael Noonan needs to wake up to the negative impact
this unfair tax is having on Irish parents and encourage the greater roll out
of e -books in the Irish education system."